20th Edition of Hornbill Festival begins in Nagaland

News:The 20th Edition of Hornbill Festival has started in the state of Nagaland.

Facts:

About Hornbill festival:

• The Hornbill Festival is a celebration held every year in Nagaland.The festival is also called the ‘Festival of Festivals’.
• The festival is organized by the Nagaland State Tourism and Art & Culture Departments.
• The festival aims to encourage inter-tribal interaction and to promote culture through colourful performances, crafts, sports, food fairs, games and ceremonies.
• The festival is named after the Great Indian hornbill,the large and colourful forest bird which is displayed in the folklore of most of the state’s tribes.
• The festival was established in 1963 and was inaugurated by the then President Dr. S Radhakrishnan.The festival was held for the first time in 2000.

About Great Indian Hornbill:

• The Great Indian Hornbill (Buceros bicornis) also known as the great pied hornbill is one of the larger members of the hornbill family.
• The bird is the state bird of Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh.But it is not a state bird of Nagaland.
• The bird is listed as vulnerable species in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List.
• The bird is threatened by (a)Logging (b)Forest clearance for agriculture (c)susceptible to hunting pressure among others.